Corbett moves to ensure power available at polls

October 30, 2012News Extra

HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett is taking steps to make sure that electrical outages caused by this week’s storm don’t interfere with next week’s voting for president and other major offices.

The governor said Tuesday that he directed Secretary of State Carol Aichele to contact county election boards and assess the situation this week.

Corbett says he hopes to have a full report by Wednesday or Thursday so that the power companies can make sure all of the state’s polling places have electricity to run their electronic voting machines.

In Lehigh County, elections chief clerk Tim Benyo says the battery life on their machines only lasts about two and a half hours. Benyo says if power isn’t back for the 151 polling places by Election Day, it’ll be a problem.